Ice bagging machines, ice vending machines, and ice bagging and vending machines are known in the art in general. Many different forms of these machines are in commercial use or are described in the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,608 discloses an automatic ice bagger that freezes a measured amount of water into cubes. The cubes are dropped directly into a bag placed under a chute. The bag is heat sealed, and then released and dropped into a cold storage bin that stores the filled bags.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,937 discloses an article bagging unit useful in bagging ice. A bag, positioned to receive ice cubes, is partially opened by an air blower and then fully opened by two pairs of fingers. The bag is filled with ice cubes and heat sealed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,523 discloses an ice measuring and dispensing machine which includes an ice supply hopper, a housing having three measuring and dispensing chambers which continuously rotate about a vertical axis, and a discharge chute. Additionally, a hammering device makes repeated, jarring contact with the wall of the chambers to vibrate the chambers and prevent the collection of ice therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,079,897 discloses a device for transferring bags from a volumetric bagger to a bag-closing machine. A fan automatically opens a bag. The required amount of ice is transferred from a hopper to the bag, and then removed to the bag transfer device. The bag transfer device then brings the bag to a bag-closing machine where the bag may be closed by any suitable method, such as stitching or heat sealing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,651 discloses an ice bagger comprising an ice collecting zone, which has a water drain, and an auger positioned below and in communication with the ice collecting zone and in communication with a separated ice delivery and bagging zone. The ice bagging apparatus is combined with an ice making apparatus and a bagged ice storage zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,016 discloses a method and apparatus for bagging ice cubes produced by a plurality of cubers with only one bagger when the cubers are stacked side-by-side with the ice produced by each cuber falling into one of two hoppers. The ice is moved from each hopper alternately to the bagger. There, each batch of ice cubes is dropped into a bag, sealed, and moved to a bag storage bin positioned below the bagger.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,851 discloses an automatic ice bagger with a self-contained sanitizing system. The sanitizing system periodically activates to sanitize the ice hopper. A flow of water is directed to the hopper to melt the ice in the hopper and to flush the melt water to a reservoir.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,982 discloses a method for automatically bagging ice using a timer and multipositional electronic scale. Ice is delivered to a bag until a sensor provides a signal indicating that the bag is full. The bag is then sealed, released, and delivered into an ice bag storage bin.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,630,310 discloses an ice bagger comprising an ice maker, an ice bagging unit, which includes an automatic sanitation system, and a merchandiser. The ice maker delivers particulate ice into a hopper housed within the ice bagging unit. The ice bagging unit includes a bag carrier which retrieves a bag from a bag supply and opens the bag underneath a delivery chute communicating with the hopper via an auger. A scale supports the bag during its filling to measure the weight of the ice delivered into the bag from the hopper. A heating element then activates to seal the bag closed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,223 discloses a remote sensing ice merchandiser. Bagged ice is presented to the consumers in an insulated cabinet having a storage chamber accessible through a front door. Photo-electric eyes mounted within the cabinet detect when the level of bagged ice falls within a certain level and transmits this information to an inventory control station.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,539 discloses a device for making, bagging, and delivering a heat-sealed bag of ice to a consumer. Ice is supplied to a hopper and then dispensed into a bag, which is then heat-sealed and delivered to the customer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,945 discloses an ice supply system, which includes a dispenser system, an ice bagger system, and an ice transport system for providing a supply of ice. The ice transport system is operatively linked with the dispenser system for transporting ice to the dispenser system and with the ice bagger system for transporting ice to the ice bagger system The ice supply system includes a dispenser system, which preferably includes a dispenser unit for facilitating the dispensing of a desired beverage and accompanying ice. The dispenser unit includes an ice bin for receiving and storing ice received from an ice making system. The ice supply system also includes an automatic ice bagger for providing individual bags of ice to consumers. A vacuum pump is used to induce movement of ice along the ice supply system.
Often, pre-bagged ice bags, whether made offsite and shipped to a retail site or bagged onsite and stored in bagged form, are frozen hard and are days or weeks old before a consumer can obtain them, e.g., through a dispenser box. Such pre-bagged hard ice is stale and can undesirably take on odors during storage or transport. Also, pre-bagged ice often agglomerates into chunks of ice that are too large for consumers to readily use, e.g., they will no longer fit into a cup or pitcher, which forces the consumer to take additional efforts to reduce the ice agglomerate size before use.
Similar problems exist in machines where ice is produced and/or stored and then dispensed into a container upon payment by a consumer. For instance, the stored ice can often melt and even refreeze in the machine. This tends to pose operational problems for such equipment, particularly automatic equipment. Thus, it is desired to provide an apparatus and method whereby these problems are minimized or eliminated.